Freo fired up for Suns

Freo fired up for Suns - The West Australian

Fremantle defender Michael Johnson says they will not be taking the Gold Coast Suns lightly ahead of their round two clash next Saturday night.

Johnson spoke at Fremantle Oval this morning after the club’s main training session, with the players set to sit out the weekend as the split opening round finishes up.

The 2013 All-Australian said he and his teammates were happy to have a break after their 70-point thrashing of Collingwood at Etihad Stadium last Friday night.

“It’s all about recovery this week and I know there are a few sore boys,” Johnson said.

“This little rest before round two will help a lot of players out.

“Leading into round one with the NAB Challenge competition it knocked us around a bit so it’ll be a good weekend to get away and rest up and get back on the horse next week.”

Johnson said they would shift their focus to the rising Stars next week.

“Most of the boys sat down and watched the game (their win over Richmond) on the weekend and they were pretty impressive,” he said.

“Led by Gary Ablett there’s a lot of experienced players that went and have started playing real good footy.

“You look at their list and there a lot of first round picks in the draft and you can see they’ve put a couple of kilos on and that’s where those second and third year players that have been on the list for a couple of years now are adapting to AFL footy and putting their weight on so they can combat the bigger bodies in the AFL.

“We won’t treat them lightly.

“We’ll go into the game pretty confident with the way we’re training and tracking at the moment but we know they’ll be coming over here to give it a hot crack and we’ll be ready.”

Johnson said he expected some of the players to travel down to Mandurah on Saturday to watch some of their teammates line up for Peel Thunder against East Perth.

“There are a number of boys coming back from injury, Garrick (Ibbotson) is one, Alex Silvagni might be another, Zac Clarke could be lining up for Peel,” he said.

“There are a few boys going down to represent Peel Thunder so hopefully they can get through the game unscathed.

“It would be a great achievement for Anthony Morabito to get through a proper game.”